Response to Repzilla's second video about Adora BatBrat: the Youtube Drama Community doesn't understand anything about the gothic subculture

submitted by ISaidWhatISaid from self.Gothic

This second Repzilla video about Adora BatBrat is the perfect example of what happens when SJW newbies and people outside the goth scene try to demonize long-accepted gothic aesthetics.

1) A picture of Adora in a wheelchair with the caption "Sometimes I feel mentally disabled" - I bet Repzilla has never seen the pictures or videos of the electro-goth artist Emily Autumn appearing onstage in a wheelchair. Or any of the other rock artists who appeared in wheelchairs. I am pretty sure the above picture of a Adora was a reference to gothic artist Emilie Autumn in a wheelchair.

2) Wearing a t-shirt that says "I'm a black girl" - I wonder what Repzilla is gonna say when he finds out that the famous gothic band Sisters of Mercy once sold a t-shirt that said: "Fuck me and marry me young.". This goes back to what I said before about offensive t-shirts being a staple of gothic fashion. I wonder what Repzilla thinks of Guns N'Roses singer Axl Rose wearing a t-shirt onstage that says: "No one knows I'm a lesbian."

3) Is Adora BatBrat a racist for saying "Black Lives Matter is stupid"? No, because BLM is stupid. I honestly can't believe Repzilla is openly defending BLM.

4) A picture of Adora with another goth in Germany holding their black painted nails to their noses in immitation of a Hitler mustache - Pretty sure almost everyone in Germany would see this as an innocent joke, consider how aggressive and black the German sense of humour generally is.

5) I don't understand what the deal with these pictures but I am guessing people took offense to those penis-shaped candles on her daughter's 15th birthday cake? The caption to the cake suggests that these penis shaped candles are illegal to show to a 15 year old girl: "Yeah, it's really acceptable to do this for your 15 year old daughter even though it isn't legal.". The age of consent in Sweden is 15 so if the 15 year old daughter herself wanted those candles on her birthday cake it's actually not illegal for her to request this. I agree that it's in bad taste and that as a mother Adora should've said something about it rather than going along with it, but again, this is not "illegal" in Sweden as the caption falsely suggests. Then Repzilla shows an excerpt from a private message where someone asks someone else whether "it's normal to have a sex party for a 15 year old girl". I don't know what this is in reference to. None of these statements about "having a sex party for a 15 year old" are explained or layed out in a comprehensive way, and no context is provided for the PMs shown here. I guess for Americans having penis-shaped candles on a cake amounts to "having a sex party".

It's interesting that Repzilla claims to care so much about legal minors given that he was recently on a Livestream together with pedo-apologist SJW Youtuber Vaush. I guess the Youtube Drama Community is OK with featuring a pedo-apologist on their channels as long as those agree to participate in targeting whatever is the Youtube Drama Community's target of the day.

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[–]TheTasteOfEspionage 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

No, it was evident that Repzilla did not understand the goth subculture. His knowledge of Adora and her history seemed limited and he referred to Seraphim&Nahemah (which he made no effort to pronounce) as an influencer, when it is in fact a business. But the problem with his video was not that he "demonized long-accepted goth aesthetics", but that he simply did not seem to know what he was talking about. In fact, most true members of the goth subculture do not condone the use of offensive and/or triggering content for shock value; the sentiment they hold is to speak up for what they believe is right even when it is unpopular, not blind defiance of moral values set by those they deem to be "normal".

On Adora's Ask FM account, she has actually stated that she knows very little of who Emilie Autumn is, just that she doesn't believe she would like her music. This makes it very unlikely that she was referencing EA's work when she took that photo. Additionally, Autumn should not be used as a gold standard of our subcultural morality; she has been another recent controversy, with many of her goth and otherwise alternative fans calling her out for racist, sexist, and ableist attitudes. A similar argument can be made for Axl Rose - many people already find him to be problematic (and generally not a good person) as well. There's a large difference between a shirt claiming to be black (worn by a white woman) and a shirt asking to marry young, so I'm not entirely sure as to why the Sisters of Mercy were brought up in this conversation.

There is nothing wrong with believing that Black lives matter - they do - and that's what the BLM movement stands for. They understand that white lives, brown lives, and any other lives matter as well, but they are protesting the court judgements that suggest our legal system believes Black lives don't matter. There are no protests when white people are killed because the killer is charged fairly; if this were not the case there would be protests over that as well. Although many misunderstand BLM or disagree with the methods used to protest it, it is not an unreasonable ideology to openly support and those who understand it but find it to be stupid typically are racist. There are also so, so many people within the goth, punk, metal, etc. subcultures who strongly believe in BLM.

Unlike in America, Germany has torn down all statues commemorating advocates of genocide and fascism. Although Germans may have darker senses of humor, they understand that there is nothing humorous about what happened there in World War II and are committed to ensuring that history never repeats - they do this by directly opposing any notion that the Nazis are a group to be celebrated, even ones made in jest. It is true that Germans would see Adora's actions as a joke, but not innocent or funny.

As for the penis party? That was an absolute dumpster fire. It was definitely not illegal though, just cringey as hell. While these parties aren't particularly abnormal for 15-year-olds in Sweden, they certainly aren't thrown by the birthday kid's mom. All of that was just weird, whether you're goth or not.

No, I don't think Repzilla's video was brilliant, but I also do not believe that all of Adora's actions are acceptable. Being a part of an alternative subculture does not grant one an exception to political correctness, especially one that was pioneered by such progressive thinkers as Rozz Williams and Siouxsie Sioux.

[–]ISaidWhatISaid[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Hey TheTasteOfEspionage, thank you for sharing your thoughts. The reason I brought up the Sisters of Mercy t-shirt that said "fuck me and marry me young" is that, if you're going down the slippery slope of political correctness, that t-shirt too could be constituted as sexist or misogynistic or making fun of child brides, or making light of the infantilization of women. Once you get into that politically correct outrage-mindset, anything can appear to be offensive, including a band t-shirt with the statement "fuck me and marry me young.".

With regards to goths jumping on the band wagon of political correctness, denouncing supposed racism in goth (of which there is very little, but I guess when your head is a hammer everything is a potential nail) and declaring their support of BLM, What is the difference between this "listening to right wing bands will eventually turn you into a raving killing Nazi", and "watching BDSM movies will eventually make you rape and torture people and turn you into a literal Jack the Ripper"? Pray do tell, what is the difference between the two? I can definitely see the hypocrisy here in the one-sided slippery slope argument being made here. If you're gonna argue that things can become a slippery slope, why stop at condemning right wing bands? Go ahead and condemn all the gothic metal bands that have Christian iconography, since the Christian Church has killed millions around the world surpassing even the Nazis in kill-count. Metallica have a song called Creeping Death based on the story from the Old Testament, perhaps they are implicitly endorsing Israel's zionism and the killing of Palestinians in an act of crypto-islamophobia? Seriously, when you get on your moral high horse to ride it into the dark night, when/where do you stop? Nothing is ever politically correct enough for the politically correct purist.

I am still of the belief that these people denouncing Aurora's offensiveness completely misunderstand and misrepresent what the subculture gothic set out to accomplish for decades, which a form of radical individualism that is directly at odds with the aims of the SJW censorfascists. Anti-racism and progressive politics are nobel goals for sire, but that's not what the SJW censorfascists want, they just want to pull on people's heartstrings for the sake of gaining power and control. I am willing to bet these people denouncing Aurora have never really listened to or studied the lyrics of albums like Antichrist Superstar or Holy Wood. I know you're gonna say Manson is not gothic, but Manson was the gateway drug for a lot millennial goths. Manson's music was all about encouraging people to recognize the little Hitler inside themselves rather than projecting a holier-than-thou attitude like the author of this article. Instead of examining their own fascistic tendencies, these SJWs have absolved themselves of any blame simply because they assume themselves to have the right opinions and couldn't possibily be wrong. Manson had a chapter in his autobiography, The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions, a truism that is entirely lost on these self-righteous SJW censorfascists. I, at the age of 40, have no time to entertain this kind of SJW holier than thou purity-policing BS. I totally support Nargal's right to wear anti-Antifa shirts if he wants to - I particularly identify with Nargal (whose music I have posted in this sub) at a very deep level because like him I too spent most of 30s in the courts with ignorant malicious SJWs who wanted to censor me for speaking my truth. I also supported people's right to wear a "Jesus Is a Cunt" Cradle of Filth t-shirt back in the 1990s, no matter how much that offended the fundies. SJW censorfascists have no place in art and are the enemies of everything art aspires to and stands for. Rather than demanding that we unite against politician X and in favour of cause Y, I suggest we unite against these SJW censorfascists and put an end to their censorship under the guise of concern-trolling before it spreads like a plague through the arts. For if these SJWs get their way, you will not be able to speak out against politician X or in favour of cause Y when you personally want to if you allow such censorfascists to set the agenda for a whole movement.

I feel that gothic Youtubers and public figures, like for example Angela Benedict in her recent video, disingenously deny that Eurocentrism as a form white supremacy has always been part of the gothic subculture's DNA, and pretend that simplying denying this is how to declare yourself in allyship with blacks. Does Angela Benedict, who insists "blacks have always been part of gothic", actually read some of the comments left under her video by black people in goth?

Random black guy here. I've never seen another black person at a goth music event other than myself. I've never seen another black person who visually appears to be a goth. I've never seen a black person in any goth band except for the dude that was with The Cure way back in the day. Someone tell me some of these other bands so I can explore this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcbDVRADfF4&lc=UgzTsk2wGIQ5KrRK6894AaABAg

There would not have been white gothic music without black/Carribean dub music and you can quote me on this. The prominent bass that is so typical to gothic music is 100% derived from dub bass line. Just listen to She's In Parties, that's undeniably a dub riff.

However, white supremacy and Eurocentrism have also always been part of goth's DNA and it would be extremely disingenuous to deny this enduring aspect of the gothic timeline. Look for example at how respected the racist artist Allerseelen was in the gothic scene in the late 1990s/early aughts. No one ever called him out on his "Blood and Soil" bullshit when I was younger, even though his views were widely known. In fact, I myself once had a ballet review rejected from a website because I took a dance company to task for dancing to his music. I paid the price for calling out racism before it became profitable and acceptable to do so. I therefore laugh at all these SJWs-come-lately like Angela who only decided that they had a problem with racism in the goth scene when it became safe and cool to do so under the banner of woke culture.

I obviously don't know what your race is, but if you are a white person, go right ahead and become a cheerleader for BLM when you know they hate you just for being white, no matter how anti-racist your trackrecord consistently has been. Oh, and you don't get to claim any credentials for having an Asian or any other non-European ancestor with BLM, because Asians/Hispanics are now all of a sudden considered white too, and racist. In parting, I would encourage you to watch the following two video clips, if you can find the time:

https://twitter.com/GlennLoury/status/1343976246099775493

https://twitter.com/GlennLoury/status/1336823034393530368